What would have been the 22nd annual Alamance County Body Building Championships has been cancelled due to the lack of entrants, promoter Trish Ellis said.

The event has been a late-spring staple for the body building community, but Ellis said only nine people signed up to compete.

“It wouldn’t have been a competition, it would have been an exhibition,” Ellis said Monday. “You can’t run a show with nine people.”

By the weekend, Ellis said she determined the championships wouldn’t be held. The event was scheduled for this coming Saturday at Williams High School’s auditorium.

Ellis, a personal trainer who previously competed as a body builder, said there were 28 entrants a year ago.

“That’s a large (drop-off),” she said. “I can’t really explain it. …. It’s a tough sport to do. It takes a whole lot of time. It’s a commitment and it’s expensive. Things get in the way.”

Several hundred spectators normally attended the evening show.

“It has been so long in Burlington, and then again sometimes everything runs its cycle,” Ellis said. “People decided not to do it this year.”

Ellis said the demands of body building make it a grueling endeavor. She said there’s a trend toward more general fitness.

She said the payoff mostly comes in personal satisfaction for body builders, though she said those rewards shouldn’t be discounted.

“You’re getting a trophy, and gratification to know you can do it,” she said.

Ellis said she’s uncertain if she’ll attempt to revive the championships for 2014. She said she’ll assess the situation in the coming months and monitor feedback she receives.

Normally, she said, she secures a date by the late summer and will make that date known a few months later. Promotion of the event usually comes in the new calendar year.

“I am sorry to those competitors who trained and worked so hard,” Ellis said.

She said guest posers Martinez Hagans (2012 Mr. North Carolina Overall Master) and Mark Lobliner (a pro body builder), who were lined up to perform, were understanding and are active in the industry so they were in training anyway.